Camera manufacturer Basler has posted sales revenue for the 2015 fiscal year of €85.4 million, up by eight per cent, year-on-year.
However, the company’s net income fell 24 per cent in 2015 to €6.2 million, while its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) were €10.0 million, down 20 per cent compared to the previous year.
Basler’s cash flow was also lower than in 2014 – the cash flow from operational activity amounted to €12.9 million, down 19 per cent, while the free cash flow, calculated as the sum of cash flows from operational activity and investment, was halved from 2014 to €3.6 million (€7.4 million in 2014).
The firm’s camera business grew 15 per cent in 2015 compared to the previous year, a rate above the VDMA’s figures for the German machine vision market, which were around 10 per cent growth in 2015.
Basler sold approximately 203,000 cameras in 2015, with the main driver of growth being the company’s compact Ace family, which showed an increase in sales of 29 per cent. The Gigabit Ethernet version was noted as being particularly popular.
Asia had the highest growth for the company at 11 per cent, with China and Japan contributing to the strong sales increase. Basler opened a production facility in Singapore in 2014.
The camera manufacturer transferred the low-cost and compact Dart and Pulse camera families to series production in 2015, while continuing R&D work on its time-of-flight technology.
For the 2016 fiscal year, Basler expects an increase of sales to €90 to 92 million. As far as earnings are concerned, the company is assuming a solid pre-tax return rate between 9 and 10 per cent depending on the sales development.
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